ENG
Paradigmatic for zoo architecture the structure of the Bärenzwinger (bear pit) provides a rigid separation between human and animal areas. As the first exhibition within the thematic frame of “Architectures of Segregation”, “Habitat” seeks to undermine these boundaries by means of two different artistic strategies that create new space for interpretation and experience.

Miriam Jonas, whose works often move between the poles of perfect surfaces and their immanent, covered uncanny effects, overlays the interior walls of the bear cages with a new layer of material, thereby transforming the three cages, all connected via low-lying passages originally built for the animals, into a walkable, or rather, crawlable sculpture.
Bioluminescent algae (plankton) find their habitat within the architectural limitations of Andreas Greiner's sculpture. The often as aesthetically pleasing experienced glow of the micro-organisms in a darkened space – as it is familiar to us in the sea where plankton is found in abundance – calls to mind the origins of all life.

Performance »Water is heavy« by Ivy Lee Fiebig

Within the outdoor enclosures, Ivy Lee Fiebig has been creating a biotope for algae and entered with the start of the exhibition into a symbiosis with the algae bloom, testing a biological cycle within a closed unit.
A bicycle-powered pump provides the exchange between the various organic and inorganic entities, which find themselves in continuous transformation. In a race for the maintenance of vital conditions, the bicycle is operated to potentiate the growth of algae, thereby accelerating the process of photosynthesis and the production of energy, nutrition as well as purifying drinking water. The goal of this architectural design of an artificially produced one-woman-biosphere is to achieve equilibrium between the human, the environment and the all other living beings which inhabit it.

Performance »Koke no Ori« by Setu

Moss with its velvety, even surface captivates with contentment and elegance. The simple beauty of Japanese moss gardens, as they are created for example in Zen Buddhist monasteries and here by the Japanese architect-artist duo Setu, consisting of Akihiro Yamamoto and Takafumi Tsukamoto, are founded in deep respect for the fine soil plant. Striving not only for an aesthetic sense, the delicate moss that grows on the walls and between the iron bars separating the outer enclosure at Bärenzwinger, gets protected from humans, animals and dry weather and find a new optimised habitat.